Various conventional methods are utilized to trade goods. There are, however, individuals and entities that circumvent such methods by producing counterfeit goods. In particular, the counterfeiting of packaged goods such as pharmaceuticals, food products, electronic devices and media, clothing, tobacco products, and the like is a continual problem that is much more relevant today than in any other time in the past. Counterfeiters are constantly increasing the production of such items and are becoming more sophisticated, particularly considering the recent improvements in technologies such as color printing, copying, and scanning. In light of the financial impact of counterfeiting, individuals and business entities have a desire for improved ways to authenticate exchanged goods.
There are numerous systems and techniques for authenticating a packaged good. At a basic level, authentication includes an authorized party assigning an identity to a package and an end user verifying the identity of the package. Some methods of assigning an identity to a package are based on unique and non-clonable properties of the package, such as the randomness of ink splatters made by a printer and the configuration of wood fibers in a paper portion of the package. Problematically, the typical package is not well-suited for this type of authentication, because the structure of the typical package prevents the unique and non-clonable properties of the package from being conveniently and accurately imaged.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary prior art system 10 including a packaged good 14 and an authentication assembly 18. The packaged good 14 includes a product 22 (shown in broken lines) sealed within a package 26. Hidden edges of the package 26 are also shown in broken lines. The package 26 is made at least partially from translucent paper. The authentication assembly 18 includes a light source 30, a digital camera 34, and a controller 38. The light source 30 illuminates the package 26, and the camera 34 images a portion 42 of the package 26. The controller 38 processes image data generated by the camera 34 and generates an identification code based on a configuration of fibers in the imaged portion 42 of the package 26. The identification code represents the identity of the package 26 and is used by an end user or intermediary to authenticate the packaged good 14.
The prior art packaged good 14 is not well-suited for use with the authentication assembly 18. The light emitted by the light source 30 passes through a translucent lower side 46 of the package 26 before illuminating a translucent upper side 50 of the package 26, which includes the imaged portion 42. The intensity of the light emitted by the light source 30 is substantially reduced after passing through the lower side 46 of the package 26, such that the imaged portion 42 of the package 26 is poorly illuminated at best. Moreover, the product 22 which is positioned within the package 26 partially blocks the light emitted by the light source 30. These factors, as well as others, prevent the camera 34 from effectively imaging the portion 42, thereby preventing the authentication assembly 18 from both efficiently generating the identification code and verifying the identity of the packaged good 14.
Based on the above, the typical packaged good is not easily compatible with known authentication assemblies; therefore, improvements to packages are desirable.